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Learning from Bergen

After three intensive days in Bergen and five inspiring meetings, thanks to NUDA we gained a lot of ideas for the WhatCity?, that would be very helpful for our cities, their municipalities, city planners and citizens last but not least.The essential strategy for the city should be its densification closely linked with the strategy for development of its public spaces. Therefore the cities have to attract families by creating catchy and user-friendly spaces for children and their parents. So to become a sustainable city with a good quality of life, each city has to compete with other cities for its attractivity.

A good civic leadership is making long-term decisions for the future development of the city and whole region. This is also one of the reasons why the contemporary urban design and planning inevitably need a dialogue between different professions like sociology, economy, landscape design, cultural management…

“The city is about values, content and people.” Enthusiastic professionals and experts on urban design and development from NUDA Håkon Iversen and Daniel Hägglund introduced us to the practice of organisations in Bergen.

28.4.2016

“The city is about values, content and people.” Enthusiastic professionals and experts on urban design and development from NUDA Håkon Iversen and Daniel Hägglund introduced us to the practice of organisations in Bergen.

“Conflicts are generators for creative solutions. If you have no problems, you have no ambitions!” encouraged us the founder and president of the organisation NUDA, Håkon Iversen, who considers himself to be an urban content designer. “You just have to change your mindset and turn negative into positive.”

“When the politician wakes up thinking of you, then you are doing a good job” , the former politician and CEO of CARDO 8641 AS, Trond Tystad gave us an idea to think about. “You have to be a pain in their ass!”

Hans Jacob Roald, the Senior City Planner at the Municipality of Bergen, went us through a very interesting history of the development of the City of Bergen. Despite of the difficult natural conditions, problems with the infrastructure and massive suburbanisation in 50’s and 70’s they are trying to find solutions. For this purpose the planners at the Municipality are using modern analysing methods like Space Syntax. The solution for the future city development is in rational densification and searching new rules for that by respecting the very strict heritage protection rules in Bergen.

“The city center is the most important part of the city. You have to make the city livable, to make people to live there.”, was one of the many important ideas by Krister Hoaas, the Commercial Policy Adviser at Bergen Chamber of Commerce, that thrives to be the driving force behind making the Bergen region the most attractive commercial area of Norway. They know, that without the attractivity of the city, not only the city won’t grow, but the whole region won’t progress.

Business Region Bergen is an organisation fully financed by the municipality. Their agenda is to foster new jobs into the region by helping new start-ups to develop their ideas and businesses or by attracting new investors to come to Bergen.
Vidar Totland from BRB is convinced that Bergen has a lot of talented people whose potential should to be used. We are convinced that Slovakia has a lot of them too.
(Vidar Totland z BRB je je presvedčený, že Bergen má množstvo talentovaných ľudí, ktorých potenciál treba využiť. My sme presvedčení, že Slovensko ich má tiež.)